Pre-Chapter A/N:I think at this point, we just have to accept that I will inevitably show up with two chapters a week. As for when those chapters show up, I think it's best I not make any particular promises. If you haven't already, I recommend turning on notifications for my stuff so you can see when new stuff drops right as it drops. More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
She snapped awake in the dead of the night. A siren was ringing. The high-pitched sound was coming from the walls of her room itself. She slid her wand out from under her pillow and pointed it straight ahead before she rolled backward off the bed and onto the floor. No spells came. The ringing from the wall continued. Was this one of her aunt's tests? she wondered. Usually, the attacking would have started by now, and she would be expected to duel her way to the floo room in order to win the game by 'escaping'. She'd never won one of these.
The siren kept ringing. And her aunt had never used something like this instead. Speaking of, where was her aunt? If this was a test, she should have been dodging spells by now. Yet there was nothing. Just the siren ringing. She rose, leaving the room, wary of an attack. But none came. It was only when she reached her aunt's solar that she found the woman who was most likely testing her.
All along the way, the same ringing sound had been coming from the walls.
"Auntie?" she called, walking in after a knock.
"Oh, Susan?" her aunt called in recognition. She was hunched over a case file, reading it in the light of the overhead fixture.
"The wards woke you, did they?" her aunt asked, acting like this was all a normal situation.
"Yeah. What's going on?"
"Nothing serious. You can go back to bed."
"That doesn't sound like nothing serious," she said, pointing at the walls as they kept ringing.
"This used to happen all the time when you were younger. I'm surprised you don't even remember. Probably someone whose family member we've put away recently. They get drunk, stumble their way over here. Shoot a couple of pot-spells at our wards and then they leave."
"But what if it's something more serious?"
"I checked. It's a single adult male. It would take more than a single wizard to breach our wards, Susan. Don't worry," she assured, and the second those words left her aunt's mouth, there was a sound from the outside, and then the entire house shook like it was the victim of an earthquake before the motion stopped. The ringing stopped with it.
"That's impossible," she heard her aunt say before her eyes could even adjust to the sudden darkness. The light fixtures had gone off in the earthquake.
"Auntie?" she called, seeing the woman she had grown up seeing as unflappable and unbotherable on the verge of panic. There was fear in her aunt's eyes for the first time ever, and Susan did not know what she could possibly do about it.
Instead of answering her call, her aunt stepped over, grabbed a hold of her and then closed her eyes. Nothing happened.
"Damn it." That was the first time she ever heard her aunt curse. It would not be the last.
"Anti-Disapparation jinx. From that far out? It has to be him."
"Who, Auntie?" she asked, wondering who this "him" was that had her aunt so panicked.
Her aunt still didn't answer. She let go of Susan's hand, reaching for the bookshelf. She picked a book seemingly at random and then came over to Susan, grabbing a hold of her shoulder so roughly that Susan moaned in pain.
"What's going on?" she asked again. Ignored once again.
"Homebase," her auntie said. Nothing happened.
"Home base, home base, home-ducking-base." Nothing still. Her aunt screamed in frustration before tossing the book into the distance. She moved to the fireplace next. She tossed the green floo powder into the flames, and instead of turning green, the fire remained the same bright red colour.
"Of course. He'd account for that as well."
"Who? Who's coming, Auntie?"
"You know who," her aunt said, meeting her eyes.
"No. He's dead. Potter and Dumbledore are insane. The Prophet says so. Everyone knows he's dead."
"This might be one of the last things I ever get to tell you, Susan, but remember that when everyone knows something, it's likely to be wrong," she said.
"Now come with me," her aunt said, but it wasn't like Susan was given much of a choice as she was dragged off into the manor, heading deeper.
"Ameliaaaaa! Are you not going to welcome me at the door? What a poor host you must be," she heard the sibilant voice echo all through the manor. Some kind of spell?
"Damn it," her aunt cursed again, dragging Susan into the library. She swung her wand behind her, shutting the door, and she hissed at it in a language Susan could not place, but runes glowed on the door.
"That won't even give us a minute," she said.
"Susan, I need you to listen to me carefully," her aunt said, drawing her closer and grabbing her head with both hands.
"This will be the last time we ever speak—"
"No."
"Yes. That man—that thing—coming here will never let me survive tonight. But you have a chance. I need you to hide in the saferoom. It has kept children of Bones blood safe for generations. It will do the same with you."
"Let's hide there together," she said, pulling at her aunt.
"No. I am a magical adult; the safe room will not protect me. You are the only one it will work for. I need you to go in. I need you to stay strong. From today, you will be the last Bones. Bear our name with pride and honour," her aunt said.
"I can't survive without you, Auntie."
"Yes, you can. Because I raised you to be strong. The second he leaves, I need you to go to Gringotts, claim the family accounts and homes. Stay in the House in Greenwich until you need to return to Hogwarts. Keep being the special girl I know you to be, keep up your training, and do me proud." Susan, unable to resist it anymore, closed the little distance between them and wrapped her arms around her.
"I love you, Auntie."
"I love you too, Susan. And I am so incredibly proud of you and the woman you will grow to become. Carry our name with pride," her aunt said, and then Susan felt her body become unable to move. She'd been petrified. She slumped backward, but before she could land on the ground, she began to float as she was carried deeper and deeper into the library until they were at the part of the library she rarely visited. She could hear her aunt muttering the incantation to open the Saferoom. The Bone House, as their ancestors had called it. Once the doors swung open, her aunt ferried her body inside.
Once she passed inside, the petrification charm ended abruptly, and so did the levitation. She fell to the floor. The Bone House did not allow magic within it.
"Stay safe, Susan. I will always love you," her aunt said, and the doors swung shut. Susan did not even try opening the doors. The Bone House could only open once in every twenty-four hours, so opening it again would be impossible.
"Show me the library," she said, and the walls of the Bone House turned into a mirror that showed her the library. She watched as her aunt prepared for You-Know-Who's arrival. She tore books from the shelves, transfiguring them into animals and stone warriors. And then she did the same with the shelves, turning them to walls that she could hide behind and take cover.
It brought a warmth to her heart that her aunt was not just giving up and going quietly into the night.
"Show me the intruder," she asked next, and she watched him. His skin was pale as snow, and his red eyes seemed to regard everything with unabashed curiosity. He was not rushing towards her aunt. He was taking a leisurely stroll, almost. He was heading towards the library, so it wasn't like he was just wandering aimlessly, but he was still taking his time, almost.
She watched as he admired the various statues and paintings that dotted Bones Manor. He was taking his time, enjoying himself like he was an invited guest on a tour and not an intruder who deserved to die. Her nails bit so deeply into her skin that they drew blood as she saw red. This man. This abomination. He wanted them dead, and he didn't even have the decency to act like it was going to cause him any trouble. And then he turned, almost like he was looking straight at her.
Susan froze, anger abandoning her, replaced by fear. How could he see her? The Bones Saferoom was just that— safe. It predated the ministry, a safe house designed for the underage members of their family to take shelter and succor if the manor was ever attacked. It wasn't even fully in the manor, like Auntie would tell her sometimes. It existed in a realm of its own.
She did not move until You-Know-Who turned his attention away from her. But while he stared at her, she noticed things about him that his hooded cloak could not hide from so close. There was a network of scars across half his face. Faint burn marks that looked to have long healed. She wondered who could have inflicted such an injury on him of all people. And then there was his nose. Or lack thereof. He just had two slits on his face that moved, almost seeming to simulate breath. Did a creature like this even need to breathe? Was he human?
She had no idea. He turned from her, but now he picked up the pace. Marching straight for the library. How did he even know that Auntie was there so surely? He paused at the door, and to her shock, he looked at the wards that were older than Susan's grandparents, and with a single thrust of his wand, he blew them apart. What kind of power was this?
Auntie hadn't been idle since Susan had turned away from her, though. You-Know-Who stepped in and was immediately beset by two bears, one for each side. He slashed his wand from side to side, and both creatures were cut to pieces. A shelf fell upon him straight from above, its mass increasing as it did so, until it was the size of almost a quarter of the library. There was nowhere to run. But You-Know-Who did not even consider running. He stabbed his wand straight upwards and the shelf creaked and groaned before turning to dust that fell to the ground. Not a speck of it landed on the hooded Dark Lord.
Instead, he stepped further into the room. The dust seemed to flee his every step. Two more shelves shot at him. This time from the ground, fired by powerful banishing spells. He blasted both into splinters with the same blasting spell. The ground right in front of him opened up, a giant badger jumping at him from within. It froze mid-air. And then it exploded, blood and innards spraying everywhere like it was— what was that thing Auror Tonks had brought her for her birthday again? Confetti?
"Confringo maxima!" she heard her Aunt's voice before she saw her peek out from the side of one of the walls she'd created. The undoubtedly powerful spell was slapped away by him as if it were a stinging jinx.
"Oh, there you are, Amelia. I would hate to have missed you."
"Once you do this, there will be no laying low for you, Voldemort. Everyone will know that you have returned." Susan choked back a tear. Even faced with this monster, her aunt still sounded so brave. There was no give in her voice, no hesitation, no fear.
"Oh Amelia, you foolish, foolish girl. This is my announcement," he hissed.
He tore through the next two creatures that assaulted him so quickly that Susan hadn't even been able to tell what they were. And then he went for her aunt. He smashed through the cover she hid behind, but she wasn't there. She had moved already. Good. But that didn't seem to bother him all that much. He flared his magic around him, and then thrust out with his wand. A black ball of magic shot out of his wand that he began directing about the room like a conductor. Everywhere it went, it left nothing but destruction in its wake. He wasn't even being careful about things; he was just flaunting his power and causing destruction for destruction's sake.
Susan saw a glint in the air, and she held her breath so as not to warn him, even as she knew there was no way for him to perceive her. While he cackled as he directed his destructive spell all about the place, her aunt moved until she was perfectly placed right behind him.
And then she cast her spell, a dark purple bolt of magic straight at his back. The spell was cast silently, and with no wand motion beyond pointing straight at him.
There was no sound. There was nothing he should have been able to use as a hint that the spell was coming. And yet, he managed to spin out of the way of the attack, the lance of purple power passing him by and slamming into one of the last few shelves. It did nothing at first, and then that shelf exploded from the inside out, creating a shockwave that pushed her aunt backward while doing nothing to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord turned his wand towards her aunt. Behind him, his dark ball of destruction fell apart with another explosive boom that caused yet another shockwave that almost tore her aunt from her feet.
She managed to keep her feet and even fired a spell straight at him, but he deflected it with a flick of his wrist, and then with another, her aunt froze. He drew his wand back, and her aunt was forced into the air like a puppet under his strings. He forced all her limbs to stretch out until they were fully extended.
"That was a better fight than I get from most. I can see why you frighten so many of mine. Would you consider joining, Amelia? House Bones is one of the oldest Houses in all of England. Your blood is old, pure, and powerful. It would be a waste for me to shed it now. Not when there are so few of us truly old names left."
Her aunt didn't reply, just launching a wad of spit that froze in the air before it could touch him.
"I see. So you would not even do it for your dear niece. What was her name again? Yes, Susan." Her aunt's struggles froze at that: the mention of her name.
"I would rather die, and so would Susan," her aunt spat back, and Susan found herself nodding along. She could never imagine working for someone so evil. So cruel. He was evil and cruel, and the man on whose orders her parents had been killed. The man that had seen her made into an orphan in the first place. Even if none of the first things mattered to her, that would always be a hangup for her.
"I believe you. Sadly for you, I do truly believe you," Voldemort said, and then he waved his wand. Her aunt's body was spread out with all her limbs stretched fully.
And then each of them snapped. Her aunt, normally so stoic, so unfeeling—except for in those tender moments she shared with her when it was just the two ofB them—showed emotion to an outsider that night. She screamed. She screamed so loudly that Susan began to cry. She wanted to cover her ears and her eyes. She didn't want to see any of this, but it felt like it would be disrespectful.
She could not allow this monster of a man to be the only one to see her aunt's last moments. Her aunt screamed, but then she controlled herself. She snapped her mouth closed. Almost like she remembered that Susan would be watching— it was possible that she did. Her aunt cared about few things more than she cared about setting a good example for Susan. And dying with honour was just the kind of thing she would consider important enough to set an example around.
"Do you want to know what I would tell her if she could hear me now?" her aunt managed to cough up.
"Oh, last words? I do enjoy hearing them. I have quite a collection, you know. So tell them to me so I may add them," he said.
"I love and am so proud of you, Susan. You are my great—"
"Boring," the Dark Lord drawled, and then with a wave of his wand, her aunt's body split in two from the neck down. He levitated her intestines out of her stomach, and at this Susan could not bear to watch anymore. She shut her eyes, huddling in on herself and trying to cry as quietly as possible. He shouldn't have been able to notice her, but she could not risk it. She could not risk her aunt's sacrifice being for nothing. She was the last of the Bones name now.
A/N: In this story, Voldemort is less directly worried about the prophecy because the mess in the graveyard didn't happen in the same way. Instead of losing to a boy he was far better than, he was taken by surprise by a somewhat worthy opponent. So without the fear of the prophecy, in much the same way, he announces his return on his own terms, and yes, he does it on the day Harry Potter was born just because. Next four chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.